Delivering a Promise: American Innovations for Promoting College Access and Success TRAVIS REINDL, JOBS FOR THE FUTURE (USA) FORUM ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INCLUSION MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 16 JULY 2008

Context Finance Programming Institutional: public subsidies based primarily on enrollment (input), as opposed to persistence and completion (throughput) Student: evolution of grant aid (need  merit  need/merit); rise of loans Programming Student success focus driven by: Changing demographics K-12 reform movement (pipeline ruptures) Rise of graduation rate as an accountability metric Programs developed as add-ons, funded by shifting combination of primarily federal and philanthropic investments

Forces for Change: Demographic

Forces for Change: Political US Rankings on the World Stage: 1st: spending per student (more than 2x OECD average) 19th: college completion (tied for last in OECD) 10th: percentage of 25-34 year olds with AA+

New Approaches Finance Programming Institutional: movement toward persistence and completion incentives in public subsidy Indiana Ohio Tennessee Texas Student: emergence of “covenant” programs targeting low-income secondary students Indiana 21st Century Scholars Oklahoma’s Promise Programming Early College High Schools (five-year program for acquiring high school diploma, postsecondary credits up to AA) Expansion of dual high school-college enrollment programs (to low SES schools and students) Redesign of “gatekeeper” courses (National Center for Academic Transformation)

Insights The power of unintended consequences Need to develop policies that do not provide implicit incentives for recruiting and retaining only the best and brightest The need to confront conventional wisdom At-risk students often need challenge over remediation, student success programs can be cost-effective, larger classes do not have to mean higher levels of attrition The importance of scalability and sustainability Doing things differently has not really been the problem; challenge has been doing things differently at scale and through political and fiscal cycles